In this session, Tina Daniels and Nicole Gileadi examined Google’s principles for charting the course for third-party cross-media audience measurement. Tina acknowledged more third-party measurement companies were expressing interest in working more closely with Google, given their stature as the world’s largest video provider. In her discussion, she acknowledged that this interest generated the need for Google to create a set of principles to offer to both measurement companies and key clients to guide the process. After reviewing these principles Tina and Nicole held an open discussion regarding these principles. Topics of the discussion included premium and high-quality content, long-form versus short-form video and the measurement of this content. In addition, Nicole touched on the importance of content and the context surrounding an ad. Other areas included the idea of exposure metrics (e.g., Where is my audience? Did I reach them?) in addition to providing signals to conduct an impact analysis.
In this session, Tania Yuki and Brian Pugh of Comscore explored the impact of frequency and latency in cross-platform advertising effectiveness. In her opening, Tania demonstrated consumer trends and touchpoints to better understand cross-media, in terms of reach and optimizing platforms for specific outcomes. In her discussion, Tania acknowledged the challenges of measurement due to the constant introduction of new innovations and the adoption of new behaviors to track. She also recognized the considerable increase in connected devices per household since the pandemic. Tania pointed out complexities in the current media ecosystem from the increase in which media has merged despite being separate platforms (e.g., linear TV, social media, online video, etc.). In addition to all the changing behavior in media consumption, the speaker noted the emergence of Generation Z is beginning to change the rules for establishing brand love and loyalty. In his discussion, Brian examined findings from the measurement of 400 cross-platform campaigns to understand trends in terms of platform mixes. Brian noted the continued growth of social media and CTV along with the decline in linear TV, though he acknowledged linear still remained “king.” Furthermore, he found that multi-screen campaigns performed better than single-platform campaigns.
Fifty years ago, defining TV was pretty simple but the video landscape has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Video is growing today, and this is driven by CTV. TV formats have their own personalities and content to define them. TV should not be approached in isolation because that is not how consumers approach it.
Audrey Steele (FOX) introduced this presentation by highlighting the objectivity of the years-long study focused on the relative value of different platforms and impression quality, with the brands involved amassing close to $3 trillion in sales. While many in the industry are focusing on maximum reach, this study looked at sales as the most important measure of impressions, quality and value between media platforms.
In 2021, the ARF launched DASH in response to today’s overwhelming complexity in measurement due to the digitization of TV, which has made user-level data especially challenging. In this panel discussion, the speakers provide an overview of DASH, including its methodology, use cases, key findings and opportunities. DASH has evolved to set a new standard in the media industry and serves as a perfect example of how cross-industry collaborations can happen.
Brittany Slattery (OpenAP), who opened this discussion, explained that the new JIC was created by national programmers and media agencies for three main purposes: (1) To bring buyers and sellers to the table with equal voices; (2) To create baseline requirements for cross-platform measurement solutions and (3) To create a harmonized census-level streaming service data set across all of the programmers in the JIC. Fox, NBCU, Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery are all JIC members, as are Dentsu, Group M, IPG Mediabrands, OMG and Publicis. The members hope to foster competition among multiple ad video measurement currencies. After her introduction, Danielle DeLauro (VAB) moderated a discussion with the representatives of three networks and Group M.
On May 17, the ARF Analytics Council explored the groundbreaking concept of Virtual IDs (VIDs) and their potential to revolutionize cross-media measurement. The essential mechanics of VIDs were explained in a non-technical manner to help professionals across media and advertising understand it better. Panelists shared how VIDs could overcome barriers in calculating cross-media and device reach and frequency.
Aarti Bhaskaran – Global Head of Ad Research & Insights, Snap Inc.
Kara Louis – Group Research Manager, Snap Inc.
With 90% of Gen Z using their platform, Snap’s Aarti Bhaskaran and Kara Louis shared six top trends gathered over three years of studying this cohort from a combination of consumer insights and media measurement. As the most diverse generation in the U.S., Gen Z values authenticity and looks for personal online experiences in ways that inform how they engage with content.
The data presented showed how Gen Z are visual communicators and mobile video natives. They trust real content from friends and family, pay attention early in ads, care about purpose messaging and want immersive shopping experiences, ideally personalized with AR.
The Q&A after the presentation covered other aspects of the study including global differences, ad lengths, content creators and costs, and Gen Z-favored brands.
Brands looking to connect with Gen Z should:
Adapt to visual communication: 95% of Gen Z have used visual communication when messaging friends, and 54% of Gen Zs agree that digital avatars/Bitmojis help them express themselves.
Leverage mobile video: For Gen Z, mobile is a complement to TV with 1 in 2 (54%) like watching shorter shows or bite-size highlights of TV shows.
Ensure real, brand-safe content: 89% say it’s important to watch videos in a place that feels like a trusted and safe space.
Use immersive experiences: Interactive and personalized shopping experiences are a must—92% of Gen Z are interested in using AR for shopping, with over half of Gen Z saying they’d be more likely to pay attention to an ad that uses AR.
Capture their attention early: Despite having the lowest overall active attention across generations, Gen Z has the highest active attention in the first 8 seconds.
Feature purpose-driven messaging: 73% of Gen Z are likely to be loyal to a company that speaks to social issues, posts information or has ads about social change.
Johanna Welch – Global Mars Horizon Comms Lab Senior Manager, Mars
Mars and Realeyes prove connection between creative attention and sales performance. Mars’ Agile Creative Expertise (ACE) tool tracks visual attention and emotion responses to digital video ads. Visual attention AI and facial coding measures how long participants watch a video and how their attention changes as they watch. Proven this model to work—optimizing content, lifting sales up to 18% in 19 markets, $30 million in ad optimizations in 18 months.
ACE can 1. Predict sales accurately while learning how consumers behave and think. 2. Optimize—improve performance through creative selection. 3. Scale—establish a fast scalable solution. The model links attention, emotion and memory. Accordingly:
1. Attention is access to the brain and enables the brand to enter into consciousness.
2. Facial reactions—build memories.
3. Impact—higher consideration, conversions and sales.
ACE solution:
1. Participant exposure: 24-48 completion, 150-500 viewers from pool of +200m people. Observe people.
2. Attention detection: deep learning, collect viewer attention through natural viewer experience.
3. Actionable scores: ML and AI analytics to assess performance and deliver scores.
Company impact: validated predictions proved connections to behavioral and sales data via over 4,000 sales/ads data points and benchmarks. They also used ACE to improve performances for TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, achieving 18% cumulative sales lift. Global scale—scored over 1,000 creatives in 18 months. In conclusion, ACE is the biggest attention database, received U.S. patent for visual attention detection. Mars hopes to share ACE with other companies. And the next step is how to take a pre-testing tool to in-flight content and to examine brand equity.
Key Takeaways
Establishing the connection between creative attention and sales performance is key.
Mars’ Agile Creative Expertise (ACE) tool tracks visual attention as well as emotional responses to digital video ads.
Proven this model to work—optimizing content, lifting sales.
In this session, Tania Yuki and Brian Pugh of Comscore explored the impact of frequency and latency in cross-platform advertising effectiveness. In her opening, Tania demonstrated consumer trends and touchpoints to better understand cross-media, in terms of reach and optimizing platforms for specific outcomes. In her discussion, Tania acknowledged the challenges of measurement due to the constant introduction of new innovations and the adoption of new behaviors to track. She also recognized the considerable increase in connected devices per household since the pandemic. Tania pointed out complexities in the current media ecosystem from the increase in which media has merged despite being separate platforms (e.g., linear TV, social media, online video, etc.). In addition to all the changing behavior in media consumption, the speaker noted the emergence of Generation Z is beginning to change the rules for establishing brand love and loyalty. In his discussion, Brian examined findings from the measurement of 400 cross-platform campaigns to understand trends in terms of platform mixes. Brian noted the continued growth of social media and CTV along with the decline in linear TV, though he acknowledged linear still remained "king." Furthermore, he found that multi-screen campaigns performed better than single-platform campaigns.
Key Takeaways
The number of connected devices per household has increased from 9 to 12 since the pandemic, creating a more complex path in which to reach consumers.
Despite being separate platforms (e.g., linear TV, social media, online video, etc.) media is “inextricably commingled together,” leading to "context switching and about getting the right content to the right consumer."
In terms of long-form video, "Linear television is still the juggernaut in the room at 205 billion [viewing] hours." Total video across linear, CTV and digital grew 5% year-over-year in the U.S. CTV viewing increased by 14% of the total hours watched.
Short-form video continues to rise in popularity through Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. This trend in short-form video consumption is growing in double-digit percentages and redefining video consumption across mobile and connected TV screens.
The emergence of Generation Z is changing the marketer approach to brand love and establishing loyalty and building long-term value as their consumer behavior is in contrast to previous cohorts. This is specific to their lack of brand loyalty.
In terms of media consumption, Generation Z are heavy movie watchers (37%), preferring dramas (29%) and cooking shows (23%). Additionally, they expressed interest in local news and documentaries.
Social media is still growing (11%) but there are fewer linear TV households (-9%) as people are consuming media elsewhere and CTV has increased substantially (32%).
Though there was a clear decline in linear TV viewership, linear TV remains supreme regarding total viewership for one channel.
In terms of incremental reach over the length of a campaign, linear TV reached a lot of viewers in the early part of a campaign, but over time the study indicated "reaching incremental people on CTV and digital more often." This finding acknowledged the advantages of a cross-screen campaign in terms of optimizing reach.
Adding screens in a campaign improved brand lift but the variability of results also increased. Additionally, results for ad recall and other variables followed a similar pattern. It was noted that the optimal platform mix depended on the target audience.
